I've seen a few mentions of this, including in the last LS leaders' meeting - figured it could do no harm to open discussion about it.
How do you guys feel about a market-type event? Would you participate/attend? If you have a crafter type character, would you sell your wares there?
Where would a good spot for this be?
What are some ways we could include as many different character types as possible, since it'd be open world?
How often should it happen? Once a month? Once every two weeks? Once a week? What day of the week/time would be best for you?
If you have a LS, would it fit in?
Should actual items and gil be exchanged too?
Thoughts? It'd be nice to get more open world IC events going, there's already an interest in a market, so it seems like a good way to start.
I'll start:
I'm personally willing to help manage the IC concept behind it (and, since I'm posting this, willing to organize it OOC). I have a LS with a very open-ended IC concept - an association that sponsors people, including crafters and artists of all trades. They have an IC excuse to sponsor/advertise a bazaar. They are not crafters, however - ideally some crafter LSes/FCs should be involved too.
I have several alts. At least two would be willing to sell things. One is an artist and would likely be offering the Hydaelyn equivalent of getting your portrait drawn quickly by a street artist. The other is an armor/weaponsmith. The others could all browse or just show up to chat.
Ul'dah seems to be Eorzea's primary trade hub, so having the market be in Ul'dah seems reasonable. I can see it being an itinerant sort of thing, though - a different city each time. RP within the city tends to get pretty messy, so finding spots outside of the cities would be cool. For Ul'dah, maybe the... Silver Bazaar, I think it's called?
Crafters, artists, performers in general and merchants obviously have a place in an event like this. Fighters could also be there as security. Most folks could at least browse, I think!
I'd go with twice a month, on different days of the week/different times so more people can attend, maybe? I'm personally a night player, though.
As for actual selling, as long as people aren't spamming, it could be a nifty way for people with high levels in crafting and/or gathering to craft or offer materials to other players. If a player is open to it, you could also buy/bring them the materials and ask them to craft for you. :o
It could be a nice way to recruit people into organizations/FCs IC! Markets usually attract people, so they tend to be nice spots for IC advertisement.
Ah, I love these things. I helped run a consortium in TERA, and we hosted a few open market faires; it was quite fun and profitable!
We did a mix of real in-game items and imaginary items. The former were exchanged for gold (the draw being that we were selling them off at significantly lower prices than they would go for on the broker), while the latter did not require any exchange of actual funds, though a few people actually did give us gold in exchange without prompt. One of our open markets ended with a short auction of a few "big ticket" items, complete with running auction commentary.
The way we organized it, we set up various "stalls" manned by one or two people. Visitors were instructed to approach the stalls and ask about wares. For me, it helped that the character I was RPing was very much a... go-getter as far as advertisement and sales went haha. I was constantly calling out to people, trying to predict what they might be after and such. If more than one person wants to do business with you, have 'em literally wait in line! Keeps things organized and straightforward.
As far as location goes, I would really recommend not doing it within Ul'dah or anywhere that there is a lot of people normally hanging around. You don't want your transactions getting lost in incidental spam. There is, however, a nice open area with some tents outside Ul'dah (can't remember which gate, though - I can check in-game later). If you want to scale up the affair, you could go for some place with nice scenery to give folk a place to "relax" in between browsing.
I've been to an event like this before in a different MMO (WoW) and I have to say that I absolutely loved it. The thing was chaos because it was in the main capital of the faction it was taking place in but I had no problem with that, in fact it was kind of authentic because of it! The way that it went down was that there was a Guild that did what your FC seems to do except they sponsored a traveling Bazaar, it worked the same ICly and OOCly, the characters would contact the company expressing their interest in having a stall there. Pay a fee for said stall. Then have two people man it and call out to passerby's advertising their wares and do business or what have you as it happened. Of course I think everyone jumped on it because they were selling things at prices that you just couldn't get anywhere else, for any WoW people they were selling ALL Glyphs for only 30 gold a piece, so I was all over that one.
Anyways. I got off track. I think it'd be a wonderful idea and though I don't have a crafter I'd certain be an attendee and buyer just for the fun of it all! One of my characters is sort of a wide eyed wanderer at the moment so this would be right up her ally when it comes to attending. If you're worried about clutter of chat...hmm, you could always have the advertising and chit chat in the open but the actual business dealings be done over /tell? I'd suggest just having a temporary LS but I'm not sure everyone would fit, if they would though that'd be neat!
I like the Silver Bazaar (I think that's what it's called, the out of the way spot in Thanalan with the quests where you save the Bazaar from being seized by some shady NPCs) because it'd be a nifty thing, lore-wise - supposedly it was once a busy trading hub, and isn't anymore. It's a fairly scenic spot, facing water, it could work nicely (at least for Ul'dah).
For (imaginary) stalls - they could probably ask a fee of anyone who isn't an affiliate IC. An imaginary fee, obviously, no need to actually pay gil to participate. People without money could probably set up "shop" with just a(n imaginary) cloth on the ground, too, flea market style. Could have artists/peformers entertaining people, too, if anyone wants their character to play the part.
I like the idea of asking that if people will sell their items for actual gil, they should sell at a lower price than the market boards. I also like the idea of transactions happening over /tell - partially to avoid clutter and partially because it is sort of an OOC thing, too.